Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an object information acquiring apparatus that acquires internal information of an object and a method for controlling the same.
Description of the Related Art
As one of apparatuses that acquire internal information of an object using an acoustic wave, there is an ultrasonic image sensing apparatus. When a living body is irradiated with an ultrasonic wave, the ultrasonic wave propagates in the object to be reflected by tissue interfaces between living body tissues which have different acoustic properties (acoustic impedances). The ultrasonic image sensing apparatus receives an acoustic wave resulting from the reflection using a probe and reconstructs image data on the basis of the intensity of the acoustic wave, thereby allowing the internal information (shape information) of the object related to the acoustic properties to be visualized.
On the other hand, as a radiation-free/non-invasive image sensing apparatus similar to the ultrasonic image sensing apparatus, there is a photoacoustic image sensing apparatus. When an object is irradiated with measurement light such as pulse laser light, upon absorption of the measurement light in living body tissues in the object, an acoustic wave is generated. By receiving the generated acoustic wave with a probe and analyzing the acoustic wave, the photoacoustic image sensing apparatus can visualize the internal information (functional information) of the object related to an optical property.
Each of these apparatuses receives the acoustic wave coming from inside the object using the probe. However, when there is a region having a different acoustic impedance between the object and the probe, the acoustic wave is reflected by the region and an image cannot normally be reconstructed. Accordingly, in the apparatus which acquires internal information of the object using the acoustic wave, it is necessary to achieve an acoustic impedance match on a propagation path for the acoustic wave.
For example, in a living body information acquiring apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-156208, an object is press-held using a holding plate and the gap between the object and the holding plate is filled with an acoustic matching material to achieve an acoustic impedance match between the object and a probe.